American Go E-Journal » Go News

Undaunted by autumnal rain, over two dozen players hunkered down for the 2012 Portland(Oregon) Go Tournament last weekend. The event, including a 7-round handicap tournament and a 5-round open, was held on the picturesque campus of Lewis & Clark College on October 20-22. A startling number of iPads were present, used to record games through Anders Kierulf’s “SmartGo Kifu” app.

Two father-son pairs competed: John and John Sajo and Guozhong and Ethan Zhuang. The younger brother of Vincent Zhuang, Ethan was one of two six-year-olds debuting at this tournament; the other was Maxwell Chen. Maxwell won the youth prize, racking up five wins despite having to miss one round to attend a birthday party.

SmartGo Kifu 2.0 includes fuseki and joseki matching: given any board position, it finds all the matching full-board or corner positions in 40,000 pro games and shows you how the professionals played. “Programs like SmartGo for Windows have long done this on the desktop,” says author Anders Kierulf. “Now you can have this capability in your pocket.” SmartGo Kifu runs on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and is available in the App Store. Click here to read more about the newest changes.

John Kerpan 1d took first place in the Massachusetts Go Association’s Fall Tournament on October 14 in Boston, MA. Kerpan topped a field of 30 players. In second place was Mark Nahabedian 13k and in third was Chia Chan 5k; all three players were 4-0. Eva Casey directed. Photo courtesy Eva Casey.

The popular Young Lions tourney, for school aged youth, is back with a new twist. Based on the tournaments in Hikaru no Go, where the newest professionals take on the top insei, the Young Lions has become one of the premier youth tourneys online. This year the winners will get a special treat though, 1st and 2nd place in the top bracket will get a chance to play a game with our very first crop of American pros, Andy Liu 1P and Gansheng Shi 1P. The event is run by the American Go Honor Society (AGHS) and has developed a reputation for picking some of the top young players in the US. “Returning competitors, are you curious how much you have improved?” asks AGHS Promotion Head Junhee Kim, “new go players, are you up for the challenge? Come sign up for fun, experience, and most importantly because of your love for go!” The tourney will feature brackets for all levels, with prizes and glory for all skill levels. See www.aghs.cc for rules and registration. The tournament will be held on KGS in the AGHS Tournaments Room on November 17th and 18th. E-mail aghsregister@gmail.com for more info. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor.

“We want more!” was the demand after last year’s Portland (Oregon) Go Tournament. With that in mind, tournament director Peter Drake is working to cram even more go into this year’s tournament, coming up October 20-21. First, there will be an open division for strong players. “So far four people have signed up for the open,” Drake reports, Solomon Choe (AGA 5.9d), Robert Tirak (6.0d), Guozhong Zhuang (6.4d), and Nicholas Jhirad (6.4d). Second, the number of games in the main handicapped tournament has been increased from five to seven. This means that players will get in more games in two days than in the week-long US Open. “What the heck,” Drake said, “You’re not getting any work done that weekend anyway.” The event will take place at Lewis & Clark College, a hotbed of computer go research that Drake says “is recognized as the second most beautiful campus in the country.” Registrations are still pouring in, but this tournament typically draws several dozen players. Click here for full details. photo: at the 2011 Portland tournament

The BadukTV free trial offer has just been extended to AGA Life Members, reports AGA president Andy Okun. Any interested Life Member should email him at president@usgo.org for details. Meanwhile, the limited number of free one-month trial subscriptions to BadukTV — a $50 value – are going fast; join or rejoin the American Go Association this month to take advantage of the offer. BadukTV is the new online video service from GoGameGuru (GGG), featuring a live 24-video feed from BadukTV in Korea and a growing archive of English translations. AGA members also get the Member’s Edition of the American Go E-Journal, which includes game commentaries. Click here to find out more about AGA membership or BadukTV.

The Capital Go Club (CGC) is hosting a workshop with Chinese pro Yang Shuang 2P (at left) this Saturday, October 13 in Fairfax, VA. Space is limited; click here to reserve your seat. Yang won 5th place in the Women’s World Go Championship in 1993, and in recent years has been focusing on teaching. A former go coach in the Nie Weiping Go Dojo in Beijing, Yang has trained many strong players who take the pro test in China. She’s also lectured at the European and U.S. go congresses, anchored go programs on TV in China and taught in Singapore. “A lot of students love her teaching games because she plays as even games without using aggressive trick moves, so that students can use their own tactics instead of being harassed by abnormal tricks,” says organizer Edward Zhang. Click here to pre-registerand see who’s coming. The fee for teaching game and game review is $24.50 for a half-day, $44 for the whole day and $5 for lecture only, with all proceeds benefiting the CGC . The Capital Go Club will also run an AGA-rated tournament Saturday with prizes, and players who travel more than 40 miles will receive a $5 travel subsidy. UPDATE: the location for the morning session has just been confirmed: 8200 Greensboro Drive, Suite 900, McLean VA (free parking). For latest info click here. photo: Yang Shuang at the October 5 GWGC demo game and analysis; photo by Edward Zhang

The Nihon Ki-in has just released an English version of Cho-U’s 4×4 Go Puzzle. Cho-U 9P came up with all of the problems for the program, and has developed a clever system for introducing go to young children. The app is available for iPhone and iPad, and is being offered on the App Store at an introductory rate of just 99 cents, until October 19th, when the price will increase to $2.99. The app introduces a colorful cast of cartoon characters, including Minigo, a black cat, and Diego, a big white dog who is taking over the playground and won’t let the cats into his territory. Children can enter story mode for flash animations that teach the basic principles of go as part of the cat’s quest to get back to the playground. The graphics are terrific, and the stones are cats and dogs. When “stones” are in atari, they shake and shiver (this can be turned off in settings for a bigger challenge). The story is interactive, and kids are asked to help Minigo solve various problems as he confronts various opponents. Players can also go to the free and challenge levels, where they can solve go problems directly. The board size is limited to 4×4, but Cho-U has made very clever puzzles within this limitation. Many of the problems revolve around seki, and you can choose what level to play with, or progress through the levels as you improve. Players can also buy more problems for the program, which come with all new festive graphics. The Snack Pack problem set gets you 100 problems, with chocolate and pink frosted donuts for pieces. The Rainy Pack and the North Pole Pack offer additional cute themes and more complicated problems. I bought the Rainy Pack for .99 and was charmed by frogs and snails playing on a lily pad field; the first problems I tried revolved around snapback. This app is perfect for kids from 5 to 10 years old, and even older kids will enjoy some of the more challenging problems. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Picture courtesy of the Nihon Ki-in.

The Greater Washington Go Club hosted “great turnout and an exciting game” on October 5 when Chinese professional Yang Shuang 2P played a 3-stone exhibition game with Josh Lee. “Josh was leading for most of the game, but then faltered in the endgame when a ko and seki developed, and lost on time,” reports GWGC President Haskell Small. “As it turns out, he would have won by a few points even with the seki. Jie Li 7D also attended the event, joining Ms. Yang in the analysis. “In the analysis, Jie commented that Ms. Yang’s play was too slow, not harsh enough, but Ms. Yang stated she was consciously playing as if it was an even game, not trying too hard,” says Small. Click here for a couple of video clips.- photos by Edward Zhang; collage by Chris Garlock

The 2012 Vintage Go event lived up to its name, with participants enjoying plenty of wine along with their crackers and tesujis. The LLNL Go Club organized the festivities September 22 in Livermore, CA.photo by Bruce Bailey